By "serious trivia" I don't mean which American President did what to someone of the opposite sex. Crucial as that seems for Americans, it is peanuts by the general standards of politics around the world. The spectacle of the only superpower engaged nationally and passionately in finding out whether or not the President lied (about something that was never a crime to begin with) amazed all but the Americans. It probably provides a welcome change to many from the run of the mill news in local dailies, where all too often the lead story might well be about a missing dog found by the friendly neighbourhood police officer. Some of the more creative and more amusing trivia often go unnoticed.In New York many years ago I came across a delightful paperback by a young, enterprising author. This was a tongue-in-cheek anthology of aphorisms of his imaginary ``hero''. Thinly disguised earthy wisdom (sometimes) was packaged in light-hearted humour that appeals to off-centre minds like my own. The slim tome, TheMaharishi Speaks, was inspired by none other than our very own export of the Karma Cola culture that was beginning to fill a spiritual void in the West. And the enterprising young author didn't leave much to the imagination as to the subject of his spoof, whom he named the `Maharishi Hashish Yogi' (MHY).
Here is how his MHY reformulates an old adage: ``A bird in hand...is bad table manners.''
The collection was not without titillation for boisterous Male Chauvinist Pigs sipping beer at a bar, and diehard feminists will surely need a funny bone to appreciate it. ``Behind every successful man,'' declares MHY, ``there stands a woman, telling him he's wrong!'' His sweeping remark on the fair sex: ``Women, generally speaking, are generally speaking!''
But before women shred this piece, let's turn quickly to one that might well have been inspired by our turncoat politicians. ``No problem is so great,'' says MHY, ``that it cannot be run away from.''
Amusing in a different way is a book published a decade ago-- Science Slightly Over the Edge learned and respected men manage to make fools of themselves with emphatic statements. Included are intellectual giants such as Lord Rutherford, the great scientist who discovered the structure of the atom, and stalwarts from world-renowned western temples of learning. Here are some of the delectable results of Mr. Regis's research.
The head of the physics department at Harvard University, Prof. Trowbridge, declared authoritatively towards the end of the 19th century that every important discovery in physics had already been made. Is it surprising that Bill Gates decided to quit Harvard before graduating?
Boeing and Airbus Industrie should frame and hang this one in their corporate board rooms. Simon Newcomb, renowned astronomer and mathematician at John Hopkins University, decided to comment in 1906 on the first manned plane flight of the Wright brothers which had taken place three years earlier. He ruled out commercial flight for all time. ``A practical machine by whichman shall fly through the air,'' he said, ``is impossible''.
And this one should find a place in the space centre at Houston. Eminent British professor A.W. Bickerton in 1926 decided to opine publicly about the sending of a rocket to the moon. ``This foolish idea,'' he said, ``...is an example of the absurd lengths to which vicious specialisation will carry scientists in thought-tight compartments.'' NASA has been laughing all the way to the moon and beyond for three decades.
The piece de resistance, perhaps, was Lord Rutherford himself in 1933. Here is the wisdom he bestowed on his distinguished audience about the energy released by the breaking up of the atom: ``Anyone who expects a source of power from the transformation of these atoms,'' he said, ``is talking moonshine.'' That was 12 years short of Hiroshima.
Dear Indian political forecasters: you are in such good company!
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
